Despite being a leader in the quick serve category, McDonald’s business slows during the Chinese New Year. At this festive time of year, consumers want “prosperous” foods from conventional Chinese cuisine to bring them luck in the year to come. When it comes to expressing their feelings, this is one of the only times that Hong Kongers express heartfelt wishes to loved ones. To revolutionize these blessings, McDonald’s created McGreetings to salute the 10% of unsung heroes who sacrifice their family time to keep the city running during the holiday. It also gave people the chance to personalize messages to friends and family through an augmented reality enabled mobile app. After creating a greeting, users passed along their well wishes with just a simple “shake” of their phone.

In addition, McDonald’s sent out brand ambassadors and two of Hong Kong’s most loved comedians – Soft Hard – to the streets to surprise people with blessings and gifts. To go inside the homes of 7 million people, McDonald’s created a special TVC through augmented reality. Over the holidays, people pointed at the TV screens and witnessed Soft Hard jump straight out of the screen with a special blessing. In store, people used the app to scan the package of the special Prosperity Burgers where “Soft Hard” appeared on screen and gave them lucky Red Packets containing e-coupons. In the end, McGreetings bridged the gap between the real and the virtual world and in less than a month, the app was used more than 1.2 million times. Interaction for the augmented reality TVC reached more than 170,000 in the first day with 640,000 unique greetings. In addition, Prosperity Burgers sold out in just two weeks.